CBS canceled Stephen Colbert’s late-night show. Democrat Minnesota Gov. and failed vice-presidential candidate Tim Walz, who recently appeared on the show, said:
“Stephen Colbert is the best in the business. He always told truth to power and pulled no punches. We need more of that, not less.” You might be forgiven for thinking Colbert’s job is to tell jokes.
Some Democrats in full meltdown mode call the left-wing show’s cancellation a casualty of CBS’s attempt to curry favor with the Trump administration. Sen. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., said, “If Paramount and CBS ended ‘The Late Show’ for political reasons, the public deserves to know. And deserves better.” The show’s writers demand that New York Attorney General Letitia James launch an investigation.
For those who long ago stopped engaging in the nightly pleasure of watching late night comedy when Johnny Carson retired and who stopped watching altogether post-Jay Leno-David Letterman, here’s what just happened. CBS’s parent company, Paramount, is seeking Federal Communications Commission approval for a merger. CBS called the cancellation “purely a financial decision against a challenging backdrop in late night … not related in any way to the show’s performance, content or other matters happening at Paramount.”
Colbert reportedly lost $40 million last year, despite posting the highest late-night ratings of any show not hosted by Fox’s Greg Gutfeld. Forty million dollars in annual losses is a lot of money, whether Colbert or the WNBA. But in the WNBA’s defense, its loss took an entire league. Colbert dropped $40 million all by himself.
Since the Carson-Leno-Letterman era, late-night comedy viewership no longer prints money. At one time, Carson’s show generated an estimated $50 million to $100 million in annual profits. It consistently rated number one in late night, capturing as much as 70% of that audience. One night in 1969, when performer Tiny Tim got married on the show, nearly 50 million people watched. During Carson’s last week in 1992, he averaged 19 million viewers, with his final show watched by 55 million. By contrast, Colbert, in May 2025, averaged 1.9 million viewers per night, with ad revenue since 2018 down 40%.
Younger viewers spend their time on TikTok and YouTube, watching clips and streaming content when and where they want on the various social media platforms.
Speaking of younger viewers, this brings us to the real reason behind the Democrat hyperventilation over Colbert’s cancellation. Twenty years ago, Pew Research found some 20% of young viewers get their “news” from the late-night shows, particularly the monologues that nowadays serve as angry op-eds against conservatives, Republicans and especially Donald Trump. The late-night show monologues routinely disparaged Trump as dumb, racist, sexist, fascist, hateful, lying, warmongering, fat, evil, etc.
Humor is a fantastic vehicle to affect views. A 2021 study conducted by the Annenberg School of Communications found: “new research suggests that humor may help keep people informed about politics. … when compared to non-humorous news clips, viewers are not only more likely to share humorously-presented news, but they are also more likely to remember the content from these segments.”
Media Research Center found during the fall 2024 presidential campaign between Trump and Kamala Harris: “hosts of the late-night ‘comedy’ shows (Comedy Central’s “The Daily Show,” ABC’s “Jimmy Kimmel Live!,” CBS’s “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert,” and NBC’s “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon” and “Late Night with Seth Meyers”) told a total of 1,463 jokes about Donald Trump and Kamala Harris — but 1,428 of them were about Trump, and only 35 were about Harris. That’s a whopping 40:1 ratio or almost 98 percent to 2 percent.”
As for jokes about the Veep candidates Walz and J.D. Vance, MRC found: “comedians told 302 jokes about the vice presidential candidates. Of these, 236 were directed at J.D. Vance compared to 66 at Tim Walz. That equates to a 4:1 ratio with 78 percent aimed at Vance.”
As for guests during the fall campaign, MRC found: “the comedians also welcomed 44 liberal celebrity, journalist, and political guests compared to zero conservatives. Those included one Colbert interview with Harris, two — one Kimmel and one “Daily Show” — with Walz, and one Kimmel with (Harris spouse) Doug Emhoff.”
Any questions? Heeeere’s Timmy!
Larry Elder is a bestselling author and nationally syndicated radio talk-show host. To find out more about Larry Elder, or become an “Elderado,” visit www.LarryElder.com. Follow Larry on X @larryelder. To read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate webpage at www.creators.com.
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